Monday, March 28, 2016

Colorado Schools: Satanic, Atheist Books Provided

The Delta County School District has agreed to allow materials from the Western Colorado Atheists and Freethinkers and the Satanic Temple to be available for distribution to middle and high school students on April Fool's Day after the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) complained that Gideon Bibles were previously made available to students.

“[Our school] policy says we cannot discriminate what is handed out. We just have to follow the process.”-- Kurt Clay, Assistant Superintendent

A district policy allows for the display of pamphlets about programs not related to school such as Boy Scouts or a 4-H. The district is now under fire for that policy because it also allows for Bibles and Satanic coloring books.

The rule permits any material to be made available to their students, as long as it doesn’t cross certain lines. Gideon's International recently set out free Bibles for students to take home. . . .

Assistant Superintendent Kurt Clay says there’s a lot of discussion in the district about this. He points out that no material is allowed to be handed out, only made available.

They’ve also been consulting their legal counsel about changing the policy. He doesn’t want to ban all material because it would prevent rural students from finding out about afterschool programs and sports teams. They’re still unsure if they can legally make a rule against just religious material.

Candi Cushman, education analyst at the Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family, told The Christian Post that she felt "common-sense standards of decency should apply to these."

"From the images displayed on recent television reports on this story, it appears that some of the materials may be disparaging of other religious viewpoints and even lewd in their depictions," said Cushman.

Cushman of FOTF also told CP that it "is commendable that the school is making an effort to avoid unconstitutional discrimination in a public forum against a group simply because of its faith-based perspective."

"It would be unfortunate to let intimidation from groups — with an apparent agenda of shutting a public forum down — to succeed in censorship for all."